LV tech firm official arrested

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Wednesday, April 11, 2001 | 10:38 a.m.

A deaf Las Vegas businessman has been charged in Utah with bilking deaf investors there out of more than $500,000.

Thuc Tri Nguyen, 36, was charged with nine felony counts of securities fraud and racketeering.

Police allege Nguyen used his relationship with deaf investors to persuade nine victims to sink thousands of dollars into the unregistered stock of a company called Safari Media. Standard disclosures weren't made for these investments, the Utah Attorney General's complaint alleges.

Nguyen last year founded PahCities, a Las Vegas company designing an Internet search engine. After several months of operations, Nguyen laid off almost all of the company's 30 employees in July, claiming PahCities was out of money.

Former employees say Nguyen settled their demands for unpaid overtime with stock options in PahCities that later proved worthless.

Nguyen's attorney couldn't be reached for comment on the allegations.